Introduction to Li Yu 李漁 (1611-1680) (adapted and condensed from Kile, Towers in the Void, pp. 15-26)

During the first four decades of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Li Yu 李漁 (1611-1680) experimented with fiction, publishing, playwriting and directing, garden and interior design. His prolific creative output is marked by imaginative and down-to-earth inquiries into the potential of the people and the world around him. ​​Li Yu was born into a merchant family in Rugao, Jiangsu province in 1611. His father and uncles, natives of Zhejiang province, were doctors and pharmaceutical vendors. The family had resided in Rugao for several generations, where business was more lucrative than in their relatively out-of-the-way ancestral village, Xia Li cun 夏李村 in Wuzhou 婺州 (near modern Lanxi in Zhejiang province). The family had not produced a successful scholar for more than nine generations. But Li Yu was a precocious child, and his family saw in him hope for success in the civil service examinations. In 1633 or 1634, when Li Yu was 23 or 24 sui, he returned to his ancestral village to complete final preparations for his first examination. He passed the county-level civil examination (tongzi shi 童子試) in 1635 with distinction in the Five Classics, but he failed the provincial exam in Hangzhou in 1639. At the time, he likely imagined that his life would revolve around the triennial provincial examination until he passed it. In fact, this attempt would be his last: when he set out for a second attempt in 1642, military activity forced him to turn back before he even reached Hangzhou.

In 1651, Li Yu published his first play in the urban center of Zhejiang, the city of Hangzhou. During the 1650s, Li Yu published on average one new play or short story collection per year. In all, Li Yu published three collections of short stories: Silent Operas (Wusheng xi 無聲戲) in 1656, Priceless Gems (Liancheng bi 連城璧) in 1658, and Twelve Towers (Shi’er lou 十二樓), also in 1658. In addition to Women in Love, nine other of Li Yu’s plays are extant.

After around a decade in Hangzhou, Li Yu began to diversify his literary production, engaging in projects that demonstrated the breadth of his knowledge, and also boasted empire-wide collaboration of many of those in his social networks. This shift is roughly simultaneous with his decision to relocate his family to Nanjing in the early 1660s. His projects during his late-Hangzhou and Nanjing years were largely collections of his own nonfiction prose on the one hand and collaborative compilations of contemporary writings on the other, including compilations of letters, prose, and court cases. The essays Li Yu wrote during this period covered a broad range of topics—including Gujin shilüe 古今史略 (A Brief History of the Old and New) in 1659, Lungu 論古 (Discussions of the Past) in 1664, those included in his compilations Zizhi xinshu chuji 資治新書初集 (New Aid for Governance) in 1663 and its sequel in 1667, as well as his crowning accomplishment, Xianqing ouji 閒情偶寄 (Leisure Notes), published in 1671. Distinctive and witty, but not ribald or even comic, these essays demonstrate Li Yu’s unique observational skills in a range of subjects, including history and governance, while Xianqing ouji is a singular experiment that instructs readers on how to constantly renew their everyday experiences. During this period, he also oversaw the publication of his collected poetry and prose in various genres in a series of collections titled Liweng yijiayan 笠翁一家言 (Liweng’s Independent Words). Xianqing ouji and Yijiayan, both published near the end of Li Yu’s life, would be his legacy, despite his insistence that he was not concerned with the future transmission of his works.

​​In 1668, using funds acquired on a recent journey to Shaanxi, Li Yu built a garden residence of his own design—Jiezi yuan 芥子園 (Mustard Seed Garden), a three mu 畝 (half-acre) combined residence, garden, publishing house, and bookshop near Zhengyang Gate 正陽門 in the southeastern corner of Nanjing. He managed and worked out of Mustard Seed Garden for eight years, selling his own works (published by Yisheng tang) and woodblock-printed stationery of his design. From it, he also directed a theater troupe featuring his own concubines as the leading male and female roles until their early deaths in 1672 and 1673.

​​In 1676, Li Yu left his Mustard Seed Garden, leaving his son-in-law to manage the business, and moved to his final residence, Cengyuan 層園, on Hangzhou’s West Lake. He was publishing, writing, and providing comments and prefaces from that residence until just months before his death. He died on the 13^th day of the first month, 1680 (KX19).